Testing Cancer Genes

In the July 2005 issue of Nature Genetics, Paul Khavari and colleagues use genetically engineered human tissue in a new approach to determine which mutations are sufficient to promote cancer progression. While many genetic mutations may be found associated with skin cancer, it has often been difficult to determine whether an individual mutation causes cancer progression.

The authors have generated human skin tissues that express some of the same mutations known to be found within human melanoma, a common form of skin cancer. They then grafted this human skin tissue onto mice, and found that the mice did indeed develop similar features as those associated with human melanoma. This may provide a general approach to testing the importance of genetic mutations found within various cancers.